If you are going to gut it anyway, I might consider spending the money for just a deep clean so you can move in and be comfortable. Certainly remove the strange little table, unless you would use it! Paint would be an improvement...

I would do a thorough cleaning and save money for the gut job later.

Gotta agree with touchadream and Cat. You may find a few things that require immediate repair once you actually move in. Save your money for those little surprises.

Paint is cheap and wonderful. Find out what old thing is under the carpet - even if it is ugly vinyl asbesto tile, you can paint a big diamond pattern on it for now. Paint the brick white so it will feel like the countertop and splash - pick your white to match the countertop. Take the doors off the open shelving. Paint the upper cabinets only in the same white - it will add so much space - you can use your accent color in objects / dishes stackked on the inside - sides and shelves of the open shelving. For the full wall pantry and lower cabinet, use scotts liquid gold and clean them / shine them (the wood is nice and dark and beautiful grain). Pick out some gorgeous hardware that is inexpensive and simple to match the metal tone of hte hinges - mod brass squares, perhaps? Cut out the scallop / take down the trim over the sink / change light fixtures - look for a multi head surface mount option - paint the rest of the walls a warm neutral to work with the warmth of the wood for now so you can do anything down the road The funky little eat in ledge / bar cracks me up - the support arm is mod and you might keep it just to see where you might incorporate it later. . .
Paint - $125 / Light fixtures $150 max/ liquid gold $25 / hardware ?

a clean slate . . . priceless :)

Do you have any examples of the light fixture you are suggesting?

I was planning on painting the brick white and probably the cabinets as well. The wall of cabinets I won't paint though. They are ugly and awkward, hiding the main light switch inside it. But ugly or not, I will enjoy having that much storage space after many years with tiny kitchens. Eventually that wall will be taken out or a part of it removed and a bar/pass thru put in. But our plan had been to spray all the dark wood and paneling in the house white, just to lighten it up until the remodeling could start room by room. It's just so drab and dark in there! We are bright color people and my kitchen has been lime green with light wood, frosted glass and brushed stainless steel for the past five years. The dark wood would be okay for a while, but I'd need to brighten it up pretty quickly, especially with a long, drab winter ahead.

Thanks for everyone's input! My MIL had offered to have the house deep cleaned for us before we move in. Maybe I'll take her up on it!

ok - back with some light fixture links. if you love color, painting it all out white will be best and if you are paying some one to spray - what if they spray the insides and boxes white on the wall of storage but you paint the doors a fun bright tangerine so you have some pizzazz to start? They won't charge you a lot more to incorporate that one wall and they will turn the garage into a spray booth for doors and drawers anyway. Might as well have some fun before you tear it down. Tangerine storage cabinet wall with pale gray walls like bm moonshine - wowsa!

I love the idea of tangerine with grey! I just mentioned to someone that I want to incorporate orange into one of the main rooms, most likely the kitchen . We already have an idea if what flooring we want to put in and it would look spectacular with the white, grey and orange. Ideas for lighting would be great. I will see what condition everything is in next week when I go in for the inspection. If the cabinets are in really bad shape and broken, I won't spend too much energy on them. But if they are not bad, I could modernize them and put off a major remodel for a couple of years.

Ikea often has unexpected and modern halogen offerings that work surface mount in a kitchen for less but here are some ideas http://www.lightingdirect.com/kovacs-p824-077-4-light-ambient-lighting-pendant-from-the-charolette-collection/p915411
http://www.lightingdirect.com/plc-lighting-plc-1530-semi-flush-ceiling-fixture-from-the-ice-cube-collection/p361613
http://www.lightingdirect.com/access-lighting-50108-four-light-down-lighting-dual-mount-ceiling-fixture-from-the-aquarius-collection/p740557

I used a pair of track fixtures once and mounted the transformers opposite each other, then swirled the lights in a constellation / mandala form into each other to get enough lights into the ceiling - if you have the budget, adding undercounter lighting and a couple of modern fixtures brings a lot of modern character immediately.

Most of my current house is IKEA, kitchen and light fixtures included. I love that place and it fits nicely with our budget. :) We are planning a shopping trip for after closing day to get some essentials and to scope out the new kitchens. Ours is 6 years old and is like new, so I would definitely design one from there again. We have a halogen track set now that we could take with us, but my husband wants to stick with all LED from now on. I better have a shopping list, it's easy to get carried away!

Well, we closed on the house a few weeks ago and I got right to work on sanding the bathroom and kitchen cabinets. It became obvious that the kitchen wasn't even worth my time when the wood started to shred in areas while I was trying to scrub and sand. Apparently, 30 years of grease was holding it all together. Since most of the drawers and cabinets were falling apart and unusable, my husband ripped it all out. We designed a new kitchen and off to Ikea we went. We had some difficult measurements to work around, but my husband is close to completing our new kitchen. He has finishing up to do with toe kicks and trim around the bottom and tops of cabinets and filling in spaces. We are now trying to figure out flooring, lighting and wall color. The cabinets are all white with dark counter tops, so I am afraid it could easily end up a cold kitchen. I was hoping to incorporate some greens and blues in the paint and back-splash. The dining room is open to the living room, which I am considering painting BM Gray Owl or Stonington Gray. I prefer cool colors over warm and lots of color vs neutral. The flooring we are doing on a very tight budget, but I have a few laminates picked out, all are dark gray tile looking. It will meet the hardwood of the rest of the upper level. I know the lighting is awful as they are just the incandescent bulbs with no fixtures right now and my husband took this photo at 2am on a work night (poor thing). Any thought?? I need to start making this kitchen feel like mine so we can move in!

Wonderful new start. Congrats! I would choose a gray/white floor. Maybe if it has a touch of warm color in the pattern. You can accessories with some warm accents to warm the area.

Since we are really limited on the amount we can spend on flooring, coming up with possibilities has been difficult. But I narrowed it down to three in the grays. The fourth look like what I have in my current kitchen (which I love), but with some charcoal in it. I wanted to stay away from browns and creams, thinking it wouldn't match, but now I am wondering if I should rethink that. It's a bit more, at the top of our spending limit, but I think we could pull it off if it would be a better choice than the all grays.

I love #4 to warm the kitchen. It works well with your window trim. Do you have some warm tones in the adjacent rooms? It would bring them together.

Right now, all the walls are cream colored, but I was planning on painting a light gray. The furniture and accents will be off white, brown/black and gray. Hmmm, I guess there isn't a lot of warmth going on other than the oak hardwood floors. I really like lime/yellowish green and aqua blue. So our tastes leans toward cool, bright colors. Is there a color I could throw in there to make the rooms less cold?

Warm colors are tones of red, orange, yellow families of color. You could choose many colors with the warm (above) as bases of other cooler colors.

I love orange and yellow, but if I pick ones too bright, will they not warm up the room?

Orange and yellow will warm a room. It doesn' matter if they are strong saturated color or soft color. Soft orange like a soft coral or peach. Soft yellows. Whatever you would like. You would need tones of whatever color you choose to be sprinkled in the kitchen and the adjacent rooms for a continuity.

Awsome. I am also looking for back splash and lighting ideas. Maybe I can bring in the color in that area as well.

I like this style of pendant for over the sink. Lots of color

I like the 3rd one with gray and orange.

I like floor option number 2. We recently installed a white kitchen with very dark countertops, and used a gray tile similar to option 2. It is a very clean look that I will not tire of. Because it is a solid color it gives me more decorating options. I used a warm turquoise as an accent color in decorations, and used pale gray on the walls. I also like light number 3 the best.

Congrats on the new kitchen - looking great!
I attached a few modern kitchens with yellow backsplashes. If you want to go with a more contemporary vibe, I would stay with flooring option number 1. Number 4 looks very busy, in my humble opinion.

The other thing, brass is very popular again, more of a burnished look not the gold shiny type. That would warm up your kitchen as well, go with any flooring choice and your furniture and be a warm tone. Just a thought.

Last post, I promise... Maybe this is totally out there but have a look at this backsplash idea - available at Home Depot, comes in different sizes and shades.or just google Aspect tiles. Good night from Canada!

I would love to see the finished look.

Thank you for all your suggestions and advice! I can't wait to sit down at the computer and look at some of your ideas.

Does anybody think I should paint the window trim? The whole house has a medium brown trim that isn't pretty. Unfortunately, when the replaced some of the windows, they went with dark brown casings. If I paint the wood, I am thinking it won't look good and just be more obvious. Thoughts?

Stephanie, Uif you don't want a cold kitchen, then stay away from grey. Talk about drab.... Even a blue-grey would be better. Like the orange splashes!

I don't think gray is drab, especially done right. Our main living area in our current house is gray, and it's way more cozy than when it was painted in warm tones. Like any color, it just needs balance.

Because of other projects that had to get done over the past year, we had to leave the kitchen. I am getting ready to dive back in and finish up what we started. I plan on painting the living room and kitchen gray, probably Gray Owl by BM and was thinking the wall behind the dining table BM Mandarin Orange. Above the narrow counter, I would like to do open shelves that I can store my baking items and such in labeled glass jars. Thoughts and suggestions?

Does anybody have suggestions for shelves over the narrow (13" deep) counter? The walls will be a light gray, accent wall BM Manderin Orange. I have glass jars with white and light orange labels on them that would go on that wall. I don't have an actual pantry, so I'm having to make use of all the vertical storage I can!

My husband would like to do the backsplash in white subway tile with gray grout. Most of the accent pieces in the room are orange, yellow and some bamboo, which (I hope) softens up the black/gray/whiteness of the room. I'd love input before the paint starts going on the walls!

Update and more ideas welcome! The walls are painted and almost all finishing work is done....FINALLY! The trim is White Dove, walls are Gray Owl and the accent wall by the dining table is Rumba Orange.

We completed the backsplash in Snow Cap Terrene from Tilebar.com and it is gorgeous.

I am shopping for a kitchen rug right now and trying to figure out if I should paint the new shelf unit we built or if we should stain it. I was thinking of adding some of the orange from the accent wall to it (maybe just the outside edges or the inside areas of the shelves and have the rest be either White Dove or Gray Owl. That would pull the orange in without having it completely take over the wall. The other option is to just paint in one of the neutral colors and let the accents and surrounding artwork give it some of the warm and fun colors while the shelves blend more. And lastly, the option of staining it a warm wood tone to break up all of the bold colors, and the black, gray and white that the rest of the room has so much of. I would be happy with just about anything I think, and other than staining it after I have decided to paint, I could change my mind and do something different if I don't like it. So I am looking for others' opinions, since I could go either way about it.

I think a wider angle photo would help us see how the shelves relate to the beautiful orange wall, etc. Great job, wow!

Sand and paint the Cabinets

Wow, you should be so proud of yourselves! You've done a great job! I think I'd paint just the front edges of your shelving to Match the Orange wall. It will pull the color from the Orange wall, and tie it all together. Again, it's beautiful!

Steph - for practical reasons - (easiest to do and be finished) but also for aesthetic reasons, I like kp's idea about painting just the front edges of your shelving orange to tie in the shelf. I'm sure you still have a long list of to dos elsewhere in your new home. You made sacrifices to get a new clean kitchen at once and I'm sure you are glad you did. Looks great - and I'm sure you added equity to your new home instantly with your work.

Thanks for coming back and sticking with us - we love to celebrate progress! Great combo and very personal / darling with the orange.

So that would mean painting the narrow strip around the front orange, right? I have had lots of different advice on this and I want to make sure I am understanding, because this is one that I keep coming back to, if I am on the same page. I would stain the entire unit and then paint the outlining edges orange? I have gone back and forth on this, but I do think pulling a little orange to tie it in is a good idea. Its going to be gorgeous and functional no matter what I do with it, my husband did a great job! And he did tell me that if I paint it and decide I don't like it, $35 and an afternoon and he can make me a new one! What a sport!

I've been contemplating and reading your thread. I think I would stain the entire unit. Firstly I think it would look more expensive . Stain it in a tone to work with other wood tones in the spaces. Secondly, I don't think it's necessary to have it be cohesive by painting some of it. The shelving might look less expensive. Just my viewpoint though.

I think I would add some orange accessories on the shelving. I think it will be enough to work with the orange wall. Staying safe with color on this particular space will not lock you into that color if in the future your color preferences change. Hubby did a nice build !

Either option will work fine. I wouldn't paint the whole shelf orange. I like the contrast of the orange paint and the light natural wood - you would just use wax to finish the wood so it wouldn't turn.

This is one of the photos i keep going back to. I know I want there to be some contrast using wood and color. Some have suggested the insides painted and the outside wood and vice versa. Or all wood and narrow edges painted...or vice versa. I haven't decided which yet. I do know that I want the color to accent, not take over the space. But I also don't want all wood because there isn't a lot of wood in the room and it is also used as an accent.

This is the home stretch! Now I need a durable rug that withstand spills and lots of traffic and then figure out what is going on the orange wall. Everyone's input has been so valuable to me!

I guess I am just not liking the orange as a color accent for the shelving. I think it would look richer and I would prefer a stain and white paint accent .

I think that we are going for a funkier look and using the orange accent to break up all the black and white and warm it up a bit. We have a graphic designer friend wants to help us create a large canvas on the orange wall, so we change out art pieces and really take it a level past matted and framed art. I heard him talking to my husband about using a very large piece of stainless steel and those really strong magnets... The kids would love to add to that project, so we'll see where we end up!

Ok I would paint the orange on the inside side panels only and the front edges of the shelving.

That sounds like a fabulous sculpture!